Employment in the European electronics sector is expected to grow according to a new study by Oxford Economics released today by IPC—Association Connecting Electronics Industries®. Such a trend would exacerbate issues created by an existing shortage of skilled workers according to our members.

The study’s release accompanied IPC’s announcement that it is expanding its Workforce Champions initiative from the United States to the European Union, with a pledge to create at least 500,000 workforce training opportunities to workers and students across the EU over the next five years.

Commissioned by IPC, the Oxford Economics report examined the data for the European electronics industry, which currently employs approximately 2.4 million workers in the 28 member states of the EU (the EU28), or about 8 percent of overall manufacturing employment. Key findings of the study include:

• Employment in the European electronics sector is climbing but still below pre-2008-recession levels.
• Germany remains the clear employment leader in the European electronics industry. In 2018, the electronics industry in Germany employed approximately 813,000 workers, equivalent to just over a third of total employment in the EU28. France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Poland round out the top five.  
• The electronics industry is moving eastward. From 2011 to 2018, electronics industry employment in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) grew at an average annual rate of 2.1%, more than double the rate in the EU15.
• Employment growth across the EU28 is expected to average 0.2 percent per year over the next five years.
• However, the trend is expected to be far from uniform across Europe with the shift eastward projected to continue with the majority of CEE economies forecast to enjoy above-average employment growth.
• Further research into the UK shows that wage growth in the electronics sector has run well ahead of the economy average and the rest of the manufacturing sector since 2011.
• Such a trend is consistent with the existence of a skills gap which has weakened the negotiating power of firms in the labour market, although further research is required to reach any definitive conclusions. We plan to make such analysis part of our research programme over the coming year.

IPC commissioned the study to better understand employment trends in Europe to undertake further research and to inform its workforce training programs. IPC certifies more than 100,000 electronics workers per year globally and recently launched the IPC Education Foundation to support science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) programs at universities and secondary schools.

The shortage of skilled workers is the industry’s top business concern. Companies simply cannot attract enough young workers to replace those retiring. With unemployment in many counties near record lows, market conditions are surely a factor. At the same time, electronics manufacturers are requiring ever-greater skillsets as the industry moves to advanced manufacturing.  

Advanced manufacturing, which relies heavily on robotics and automation, opens new horizons for the European electronics industry. The workers in these cutting-edge facilities tend to have less hands-on interaction with manual tools and greater reliance on computer-managed machinery. This trend is making manufacturing cleaner and safer than in the past, but it is placing new skills requirements on workers.

“The chronic shortage of adequately skilled workers and the changes in skills required are some of the most difficult challenges facing the electronics industry in Europe and worldwide,” said IPC President and CEO John Mitchell. “More than two-thirds of IPC companies indicate that a lack of skilled workers is constraining their ability to grow.

“That is why IPC is significantly expanding our industry’s efforts to engage young people and provide the education and training programs they need to enter and be successful in this industry.

“From a policy perspective,” Mitchell added, “we believe Europe needs to take a strong cross-sectoral policy approach to expanding the skilled workforce and strengthening the electronics value-chain.”

IPC unveiled its EU Workforce Champions initiative in a meeting with Inge Bernaerts, Head of Cabinet for Marianne Thyssen, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility.

In support of its pledge, IPC is making unprecedented, multi-million-dollar investments in its education, training and workforce programs. The multifaceted effort will include investments in training and credentialing programs, STEM programming in secondary and post-secondary schools, “Earn & Learn” programs, and new job opportunities.

IPC’s popular standards, J-STD-001, recognized globally for its criteria on soldering processes and materials, and IPC-A-610, the most widely used electronics assembly acceptance document, complement each other when used together. IPC offers a new technical education course, Process and Acceptability Requirements: Utilizing J-STD-001 and IPC-A-610 Together, to provide instruction on how best to use these documents jointly.

This course is ideally suited for process engineers, quality managers, auditors and others defining contractual requirements for soldering and acceptance.

Attendees will learn:

• How these documents complement each other and where they differ;
• How to provide clear instructions on drawings and documentation;
• What takes precedence when a conflict occurs in the requirements;
• How to navigate the complex world of ensuring staff training and proficiency requirements can be met.
• What is needed to properly flow down requirements to suppliers and the pitfalls of taking shortcuts.

“J-STD-001 and IPC-A-610 are written and revised in synergy,” said Teresa Rowe, senior director, assembly and standards technology, “so it makes sense to use them together. This course is designed to teach attendees how to use these standards jointly.”

Courses will be offered in the following locations:

• April 2, 2019, King of Prussia, Pennsylania (full-day course)
• May 5-6, 2019, Nuremberg, Germany (full-day course delivered over two half days)
• September 10, 2019, Huntsville, Alabama (full-day course)
• December 3, 2019, Anaheim, California (full-day course)

For more information or to register for IPC’s technical educations courses, visit www.ipc.org/TechEd-001-610.

U.S. export control rules have changed significantly in the last decade, and more change is expected over the next few years as policymakers tackle the treatment of emerging and foundational technologies and respond to geopolitical developments.

To help electronics manufacturers comply with U.S. export control rules and stay abreast of regulatory developments, IPC is hosting training workshops the week of April 29, 2019, in California, Illinois, and Virginia.

The all-day workshops — sponsored and hosted by IPC member-company TTM Technologies — will feature instruction by Gary Stanley, president, Global Legal Services, PC, one of the nation’s top legal experts on all matters related to export controls.
During the workshop, Stanley will cover the following topics:

• Regulatory Framework for U.S. Export Controls
• Fundamentals of Export Control Compliance
• Application of Export Controls to Electronics
• Review of Recent Reforms
• Enforcement Trends
• Regulatory Forecast

In addition to Stanley’s instruction, IPC and U.S. Department of Defense Executive Agent for Printed Circuit Board and Interconnect Technology (PrCB EA) staff will also be on hand to discuss other important initiatives in progress to help address business risks within the DoD electronics supply chain. One program being highlighted will be the IPC-1791, Trusted Electronic Designer, Manufacturer and Assembler Requirements (trusted supplier standard) and related qualified manufacturers list (QML) initiative, which promises to become an increasingly important qualifier in defense acquisition and verified export control compliance. A PrCB EA representative will also debrief the group on a supply chain risk management tool in development, which is intended to help the DoD identify and mitigate supply chain risks associated with the purchase of PrCBs. 

“The U.S. Government has been clear and emphatic: Ignorance is no excuse for violation of U.S. export control rules,” said Chris Mitchell, IPC vice president of global government relations. “IPC urges any U.S. Defense contractors and manufacturers that work on electronics covered by ITAR and EAR to join us the week of April 29 to ensure your company is safeguarding U.S. national security and protecting itself from the financial and reputational harm that comes from even unintended export control violations,” Mitchell added.

To learn more about workshops or to register, visit www.ipc.org/US-Export-Compliance-Workshop or contact Mitchell at ChrisMitchell@ipc.org.

In conjunction with Global Industrie/Midest and SNESE, IFTEC and IPC conducted the first regional European qualification for the IPC Hand Soldering Competition in Lyon, France on March 5-8, 2019. The competition was fierce as 32 competitors went soldering iron to soldering iron to compete for the coveted hand soldering competition crown.

This year, the first and second place winners scored the same points and judges had to use the completion time to determine the winner. The third through fifth place competitors had the exact same scores so judges had to use the completion time to determine the third place winner. The judges noted the competitors’ skills were quite high this year, making it more difficult to determine a winner.

Participants in the hand soldering competition were tasked with building a functional Class 3 electronics assembly within a 60-minute time limit. This year’s innovative design included many tiny components which added to the complexity of the competition.

Taking first place with a cash prize of €300 and a JBC soldering station was Nathalie Foubert (Safran, Fougères), who earned 438 points (out of a possible 445) with a completion time of 48 minutes and19 seconds. Foubert will be invited to compete at the IPC Hand Soldering World Championship in November 2019 at productronica, in Munich, Germany.

Second place and a cash prize of €200 went to Catherine Simon-Cardinal (Thalès DMS, Etrelles) who earned 438 points within the 60-minute time limit. Simon-Cardinal was the 2018 European champion and represented Europe at the IPC Hand Soldering World Championship in San Diego this past January. Manuella Anani (Dassault Aviation, Saint-Cloud) took third place and a cash prize of €100 finishing in 54 minutes and 19 seconds and a score of 436 points. 

Master Instructor Trainers from IFTEC served as judges and evaluated each assembly based on workmanship, overall functionality, compliance with IPC-A-610G Class 3 criteria and speed to complete the printed circuit board.

“The best-of-the-best hand soldering talent in France came to compete at Global Industrie/Midest,” said David Bergman, IPC vice president of standards and technology. “The competition was tough, but each competitor rose to the challenge. We look forward to hosting more hand soldering competitions across the globe.”

Bergman added, “IPC would like to thank hand soldering competition gold sponsors: JBC, HAKKO, and Thales; silver sponsors: IFTEC, Optilia, The Daylight Company, Almit, Zestron and NCAB Group; and local supporters: SNESE, MIDEST and the magazine Les Cahiers de L’électronique for their support.”

IPC is planning additional hand soldering competitions in Europe. Watch for announcements from IPC with locations and times and on IPC’s Hand Soldering Competition web page. For more information on IPC events, visit www.ipc.org/events.

The proliferation of tighter microvia densities and signal integrity requirements in printed boards within the electronics industry has revealed reliability concerns with microvia structures in high performance products. A number of IPC OEM member companies have approached IPC with examples of microvia failures in high-profile hardware that were not observed until after bare printed board fabrication, inspection and acceptance, including:

• Post Reflow In-Circuit Test
• During “Box Level” Assembly Environmental Stress Screening (ESS)
• In Service (End Customer Fielded Product)

Many of these failures occurred within products that had already passed traditional production lot acceptance testing in accordance with existing IPC-6010, Printed Board Qualification and Performance Specifications. IPC has been provided with data showing that traditional inspection techniques utilizing thermally stressed microsections and light microscopes alone is no longer an effective quality assurance tool for detecting microvia-to-target plating failures.

Related to this, in 2018, IPC released IPC-WP-023, an IPC Technology Solutions White Paper on Performance-Based Printed Board OEM Acceptance titled “Via Chain Continuity Reflow Test: The Hidden Reliability Threat – Weak Microvia Interface.”  The white paper asserts stacked microvia reliability problems linked to a weak interface between microvia target pads and electrolytic copper fill and provides data in support of the observations reported by numerous IPC OEM member companies.

As a result of IPC-WP-023, the IPC V-TSL-MVIA Weak Interface Microvia Failures Technology Solutions Subcommittee was formed in late 2018 to begin investigating the potential causes of these failures and to provide industry resources on the topic. This group provided its first update to industry during an open forum held during IPC APEX EXPO 2019 and will continue to provide updates as it progresses.

In response to this, IPC is issuing the following warning statement, which will also be included in the forthcoming IPC-6012E, Qualification and Performance Specification for Rigid Printed Boards:

“There have been many examples of post fabrication microvia failures over the last several years.  Typically, these failures occur during reflow, however they are often undetectable (latent) at room temperature. The further along the assembly process that the failures manifest themselves the more expensive they become. If they remain undetected until after the product is placed into service, they become a much greater cost risk, and more importantly, may pose a safety risk.”

Looking forward, IPC is working on the concept of moving away from traditional microsection evaluations and focusing on performance-based acceptance testing, a recommendation made several years ago by the IPC D-33a Rigid Printed Board Performance Task Group responsible for the IPC-6012 specification. In conjunction with this task group and the IPC 1-10c Test Coupon and Artwork and Generation Task Group and D-32 Thermal Stress Test Methodology Subcommittee, IPC continues to work on revisions to its existing test methods for thermal stress (IPC-TM-650, Method 2.6.27) and thermal shock (IPC-TM-650, Method 2.6.7.2). These methodologies make use of performance-based acceptance test coupons utilizing electrical resistance measurements, such as the IPC-2221B Appendix “D” coupon, which when designed properly in accordance with the IPC-2221B Gerber Coupon Generator tool, have allowed manufacturers to detect latent microvia failures and shelter themselves from possible defect escapes.

For more information on this issue, contact John Perry, director, printed board standards & technology, at JohnPerry@ipc.org.

Lead, Educate and Connect - these three words gives the perfect insight into this year’s Wire Harness Conference. Starting with a record high of 50 attendees joining the “First Timers Session” that was led by representatives of WHMA’s Board of Directors; this meeting was to educate the participants on the association and conference, discuss industry topics, and introduce and connect the First Timers with other members throughout the conference.

With 2019 being one of the largest Annual Wire Harness Conferences hosted by WHMA, with 32 Exhibitors and 235 attendees, the presentations were full, roundtables were conversing, the exhibit hall was busy, and the receptions were buzzing. This conference is not just a conference but has become an investment for many attendees to learn, grow, share and discover new approaches in the wire harness and cable industry.

The Conference planning committee goes to great lengths to create a compelling and educational industry related agenda and did this year justice. Starting with the Keynote Presenter, Todd Buchholz and his riveting presentation entitled “Prosperity Ahead – or Not?”, giving the audience an understanding of the competitive pressure, we face today and a road map to finding success.

Diving into what to expect from the economy this year and beyond was Taylor St. Germain with his presentation on, “Wire Harness Industry Economics – The Future and Now.”  This presentation had the audience on the edge of their seats learning about using a rate-of-change calculation method by which their company can take advantage of their own data and the economic environment. They also walked away with a clearer vision for the economic future in 2019 and beyond, an understanding on the impact of government policy on the economy, and inflation, interest rate and profitability expectations.

With other great speakers focusing on supporting and developing standards, profiting from R&D tax credits, and developing the future workforce in manufacturing, the conference provided pertinent information to their attendees. Daniel Penrod from LJR Electronics stated, “I've attended the WHMA annual conference on and off since 2000, both as a manufacturer and now as a distributor.  The 2019 conference was the best yet, with greater attendance and relevant economic speakers.”

Thoughts from the Chairman of WHMA’s Board of Directors about this year’s conference. “It was great to hear the attendee feedback that the 2019 WHMA conference was one of the best ever. They really appreciated the opportunity to network with their industry peers, while learning about ways to improve their business. The 2020 conference in Las Vegas should be even better,” said Rick Bromm, President, Altex.

In 2020, WHMA’s Annual Wire Harness Conference will be held at the JW Marriott Las Vegas Resort & Spa the week of February 16th. The 2020 Annual Conference Committee are developing the agenda, locating speakers and forming discussion topics for this exciting industry event. This event goal is to LEAD you through the best practices of the wire harness and cable industry, EDUCATE you on developing standards and additional resources throughout the industry, and CONNECT you with long-lasting, valuable relationships within your industry. Keep an eye on www.whma.org for more details.

The IPC Education Foundation was formally launched during IPC APEX EXPO 2019. As part of that launch, the Foundation committed to starting scholarship programs to raise awareness and reward educators and students that have interest in the electronics industry and the engineering disciplines. On March 4, 2019, the first two of these scholarship programs were opened to eligible participants.

The Michael V. Carano Teacher Excellence Award supports the professional development for secondary and post-secondary educators pursuing training related to the electronics industry. The Award recognizes the extraordinary contributions that Michael Carano has made to IPC and the electronics industry. The award includes a $1,000 scholarship and a one-year membership pass to IPC EDGE, IPC’s on-line learning platform. The online application must be completed by August 1, 2019.

The second scholarship program, The IPC Student Chapter Scholarship, helps to identify and encourage talented and focused IPC Student Chapter Members from to pursue careers in the electronics industry. The IPC Education Foundation has launched seven IPC Student Chapters with a goal of 50 student chapters by the end of 2019. Currently, student members at Auburn, North Carolina State, Sacramento State, Central Carolina Community College, Gwinnett Technical College, Michigan Technical University, and Triton College are eligible for this annual award.

Charlene Gunter, director of strategic partnerships and programs at IPC, remarked, “We are just getting started with our scholarship programs. We’re working hard to secure additional funding to make these career paths more accessible to interested students no matter their economic situation.”

The IPC Education Foundation, a 501©(3) organization, focuses on strengthening and shaping the emerging workforce by providing educational opportunities, connecting the emerging workforce with industry opportunities, improving the perception of the industry, and offering scholarships to deserving students.

For more information on the IPC Education Foundation scholarship programs, contact Charlene Gunter at CharleneGunter@ipc.org or visit www.ipcef.org.

IPC’s statistical programs for the global electronics manufacturing services (EMS), assembly equipment and solder industries are now open to new participants for 2019. The deadline for IPC members to sign up is April 1. Participating companies receive quarterly market data at no cost. Participation is free to IPC-member companies as a benefit of membership.

The statistical programs give participating companies access to timely market data that they could not collect themselves and would be prohibitively expensive to obtain from research firms. As a neutral and trusted third party, IPC collects sales, orders and other business data from the participating companies using a secure and confidential online survey system. In exchange, these companies receive the aggregate data and comprehensive quarterly reports that reveal the latest market trends for the industry. Individual company data is kept strictly confidential.

Participating companies use the data in their marketing, sales, planning and financial activities. It helps them to track changes in their market shares, compare their business performance to industry averages within their product segments, and identify growing and declining markets.

These statistical programs have been running for decades. The EMS Statistical Program was limited to North American manufacturers until this year. Participation is now open to EMS companies in Asia and Europe. Participants are both public and private companies of all sizes, including many of the world’s leading companies. Details about these and other IPC statistical programs is at www.ipc.org/StatPrograms.

IPC members interested in participating this year can sign up by contacting IPC at marketresearch@ipc.org or by phone at +1 847-597-2868, by April 1.

IPC® invites innovators, technologists, materials suppliers, electrical engineers and academicians to submit technical conference abstracts and educational course proposals for IPC E-TEXTILES Europe 2019 to be held on November 12, 2019 in Munich, Germany.

IPC E-TEXTILES Europe 2019 will provide a platform for presenters and their companies to promote their expertise in e-textiles technologies to key contacts from such industries as fashion design, health and medical, sports and athletics, automotive and military/aerospace.  

Expert technical presentations are being sought in the following areas:

reliability, test methods, connectors, design, innovations in materials, mass production, washability, and market-specific e-textiles technologies (automotive, military, consumer wearables, etc.)

An approximate 300-word technical conference abstract summarizing original and previously unpublished work covering case histories, research and discoveries must be submitted. The submission should describe significant results from experiments and case studies, emphasize new techniques, discuss trends of interest and contain appropriate technical test results.

In addition, course proposals are solicited from individuals interested in presenting half-day (three-hour) professional development courses on e-textiles design, manufacturing processes and materials.

Technical conference paper abstracts and course proposals are due May 10, 2019. To submit an abstract or course proposal, e-mail Chris Jorgensen, IPC’s director of technology transfer, at ChrisJorgensen@ipc.org.